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Congress president Rahul Gandhi has cast his hat into the ring of prime ministerial stakes following a general election, albeit in answer to a question and in a subtle and understated fashion. He said that he is ready to become the PM should his party emerge as the largest in Lok Sabha elections. This marks a break from the erstwhile diffident style of both Rahul and Sonia.

In fact, there are signs that Rahul and Congress are learning from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP. The latter today is an electoral juggernaut with Modi and party president Amit Shah giving their 100% in each poll campaign. But such a relentless, hands-on approach is alien to Congress culture. The party had failed to grasp the changes in the Indian electorate and modes of campaigning. For example, BJP had clearly stolen a march over Congress on the social media front. However, Rahul’s team seems to be correcting this now and he himself is looking like a more engaged leader.

Of course, that by itself doesn’t ensure Rahul’s chances of becoming PM. There’s still time before the Lok Sabha polls and much will depend on Congress’s performance in assembly elections from here on. If an opposition front is to be cobbled together to take on BJP in general elections, the question of who will lead it will inevitably come up. Modi’s highly personalised and presidential style of campaigning cannot be countered by a faceless alphabet soup of opposition parties.

Given Congress’s parlous state currently, recovering to the point where Rahul can be seen as a plausible PM candidate is certainly an uphill task. But Congress is taking a leaf out of BJP’s book by projecting confidence and a can-do spirit. And in case an opposition coalition were to breast the tape ahead of NDA in the next general election, that the largest party within the opposition formation gets to select the next PM is a reasonable proposition. Some parties within that formation, such as Trinamool Congress, may share BJP’s assessment that Rahul is too junior and lacks credentials. But those parties may want to throw their own leaders’ hats into the ring. That question could be resolved if Congress were to do particularly well in assembly elections between now and then. This is precisely why the Karnataka polls are so important.

This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.